Going The Distance
January 2025
Happy New Year to you from the Home of Refuge! It is 2025, which means we have been ministering the gospel in Peru for 17 years now. Praise God! We are grateful for YOU and for your faithfulness as we turn the corner on another year and look with anticipation toward what lies ahead.
Would you pause every other thought for a moment to consider something with me? HOW MUCH does God LOVE? What is the measure of it? We can all reply, “He died for me”, but maybe, like me, you’ve heard those words so often that they no longer stir your heart the way they should. 1 John 4:16 sheds light from a different angle. It says His love is perfect, meaning complete; it’s not the type of love to hold anything back! We were all FAR from God, andJesus went the distance to reach us. He left nothing on the table; He looked at us, wanted us, and decided we were worth the cost. Wow! Pondering that truth—THAT type of limitless love—is humbling, life-changing.
When we let God’s love touch our hearts, it reproduces IN US that same love for others. It’s God’s love that goes the distance. It is why we get up at 4:00 a.m. each time we travel the 2-hours of winding roads up into the little area of Ccarhuacalla to feed and minister to elderly people nobody else cares about in Peru. And for the last year and five months, we have been able to do so consistently, watching firsthand how God’s love and your faithful support change lives.
God’s love is what directed us to that community in the first place and allowed us to observe the large number of abandoned elderly people living in precarious situations, struggling to get food, doing heavy work that their bodies can no longer bear. His love decided they are worth the cost to bring food in week after week. His love expanded our reach into 3 neighboring communities, to provide relief to even more elderly. His love and your faithful support give us the chance to look these people in the eye with compassion and do something about their suffering. Every time we come, more elderly not already being served by the ministry show up and beg to be included. The love of God doesn’t turn them away. And we are grateful that because of your support we can offer them something. We are also grateful for how helping the poor changes OUR lives. It affords us a relationship with our older brothers and sisters and the chance to hear their stories. Each one has a story, and each story matters; in them we hear how God has answered their prayers, which shows us God’s love for our neighbor.
God’s perfect love: it holds nothing back! God’s love GIVES. His perfect love lavishes. It spills over abundantly till everyone within its reach is affected. His love goes the distance. God’s love and your support went the distance for Christmas last month, providing a beautiful meal and gifts to the elderly we minister to in Ccarhuacalla and the neighboring vicinity. On behalf of each one, we offer heartfelt thanks for the love you have shown them. You also reached all the way to the jungles of Peru where children we feed each month enjoyed a Christmas meal and gifts. The children, too, were very grateful for your generosity.
In both places, it was a meal to remember, full of things they could never afford to have: roast pork, rice, beans, potatoes, drinks, cake, and gifts.
As we look to 2025, we plan to go the distance with God’s love everywhere we can. Will you join us in each of the upcoming months and continue helping us reach people with God’s perfect love? Thank you for your recognition of God’s heart for the people we serve. May His love flow freely through all of us this year.
Gratefully,
Tony and Rosa Rivera
Home of Refuge International, Inc.
